Silverspur

Silverspur is a former mining town 60 km south-west of Stanthorpe. The nearest town is Texas (in the Inglewood Shire), about 12 km to the west.

The first mineral find at Silverspur occurred in 1890 when a farm worker noticed an outcrop of mineralised quartz. He was familiar with existing copper mining activity in the district and formed a small syndicate to work the find. Returns were indifferent, the claim was sold, and in 1893 a metallurgist was commissioned to manage the extraction and processing. The most profitable metal subsequently won was silver, with varying quantities of copper, zinc and gold. The ore was fired and the metals smelted on site, consuming local wood and employing numerous tree fellers.

Production was constant for over 20 years. The 1912 Post Office Directory recorded Silverspur as having a doctor, two nurses, four stores, a boarding house, school (with 110 pupils on its roll, and which operated from 1895-1960), police station, baker, butcher, blacksmith and billiard saloon. There were also 50 or more graziers and selectors.

A proposed railway from Texas to Silverspur did not materialise, and production fell away after 1915, ceasing in 1932 and spelling the end for the town. Rather oddly, or perhaps defiantly, a hall and school of arts were built in this period, and an Anglican church erected the year mining ended.

Silverspur is now notable for its industrial heritage, principally abandoned mine machinery. Its census populations were:

Census Date

Population

1911

501

1921

171

1961

72

2006

124

2011

not recorded

Geoff Harding, Across the Dumaresq: a history of the Inglewood Shire, Inglewood, Inglewood Shire Council, 1988